Five Times Jack Took Care Of Himself, And One Time He Didn't Have To
by greenglassghost
Summary: Jack's been on his own so long that he's learned to take care of himself. Having people be there for him now is going to take some getting used to. So here are five times he tended his own injuries, fought his own fights, and dealt with his own pain . . . and the one time he couldn't, but thankfully, didn't have to.
1. The Bare Bones

The Bare Bones

The first time Pitch struck back was the first time it happened. The first time the other Guardians realized just how used to being alone Jack was, and how independent he was. His independence wasn't necessarily a good thing. There are times when you need to let someone else take care of you. That was something Jack Frost hadn't realized yet. He'd always taken care of himself. He didn't know any differently.

It was a big city in Hong Kong where they fought Pitch and the battle took place mostly in the air. There were plenty of skyscrapers and other tall buildings to help keep the field level for Bunny, who couldn't fly. North had his sleigh to help battle the nightmares. Sandy, Tooth, and Jack could all fly of course. Pitch, despite having a large number of nightmares at his disposal, was clearly outmatched and was only able to drag the battle on by using evasion techniques. But when he saw an opportunity to take down Jack Frost, an opening in his guard, how could he resist? A clear shot at the one who'd ruined all his plans wasn't something he got every day.

He summoned his scythe of nightmare sand and swung it at the boy from behind as Jack iced a nightmare with his staff.

"Jack! Look out!" came the call from Tooth.

But Jack being Jack didn't look anywhere. He just moved, which turned out to be his saving grace. Pitch's swing missed him completely. Failing to cut Jack with the sharp blade of his scythe, he swung it the opposite way before Jack had time to change directions. The blunt end hit him hard and slammed him into the closest skyscraper.

Something cracked. Something other than glass. Lots of that cracked too, and most likely masked the sound to the other Guardians, but Pitch recognized the sound of bones breaking. Jack gave a cry of pain but didn't let go of his staff and sent a wave of blinding white ice right at Pitch, forcing Pitch away. He had to move quickly to dodge a boomerang that would have hit him in the head, and a sleigh that would have hit all of him. Another blast of ice from Frost made him pull back even further, and he had to admire the boy's stubbornness. Even with the pain of a broken bone, he still fought on and refused to let his friends completely take over for him. But he didn't follow when Pitch ducked around the side of another building, even though North and Bunny both gave chase.

Jack himself clenched his teeth and blasted away another nightmare that had come up behind North's sleigh before he allowed himself even a short moment of respite. When he could finally afford to, he dropped down onto the roof of a nearby building and landed on his good leg. The other hurt awfully and he immediately knew from experience that it was broken, even before he saw the sickening way his lower leg was bent where it wasn't supposed to be bent.

He propped his injured leg up on an AC vent as he was sitting, then tentatively felt the break, making sure that it was a clean break. Satisfied that it was, he braced himself for the pain then set the bone himself, pushing it back into place with his bare hands. He couldn't hold back a scream of pain but he managed to keep it short. Several frozen tears fell into his lap as he tossed his head trying to get the pain under control. Then once it was he touched the crook of his staff to his leg and encased it in a cast of ice.

He had a battle to finish.

They drove Pitch off quickly after that, got rid of all the nightmares, then climbed in the sleigh to rocket back to the North Pole for a victory celebration. It was only once they were back inside that anyone noticed anything was wrong with Jack, when he floated alongside them rather than walked like he usually did.

"Oy! What happened to you?" asked Bunny when he noticed Jack's leg was encased in ice.

"Pitch broke my leg," Jack answered.

"What?" Tooth gasped.

"Jack!" North was shocked. Sandy made distressed gestures are him.

"It's alright, I already fixed it," Jack told them.

"You don't just fix a broken leg, mate!" gaped Bunny.

Jack gave him a weird look. "Uh, yeah you do. People break bones and set them all the time, then they get healed. Fixed. Made whole."

"Yeah, but the people who break the bones usually aren't the ones who set the bloody things!" Bunny shouted.

"What are you talking about? Pitch didn't set it, I did."

"What? No, you're the one who broke it!"

"No, I just told you, Pitch broke it!"

"Bunny, enough! Jack, please, sit down." North pulled up a chair for him.

Jack hesitated. He tried to decide whether or not it would pay off to be defiant, but decided not to test it tonight. He was tired and his leg ached. So, he floated down onto the chair where North had put it.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't let this go. Seriously, Jack? Are you off your rocker? You set your own blood broken leg!" Bunny shouted.

"So what? What's the big deal?" demanded Jack.

Sandy made some quick hand motions to get their attention, then used his dream sand to make a hand reaching out to help, a first aid kit, a bandaid, and finally a boy being hugged by a lager person, an adult.

"You said it, Sandy," said Bunny.

"Jack, we would have helped you," Tooth said.

"We would have been here for you. Treated your wounds," North told him.

Jack gave them an offensive look and hopped up from his chair, floating just up out of reach of North's caring hands so the big man wouldn't be able to touch him.

"I didn't need any help. I don't need help. I can take care of myself," he said defiantly.

"We know you can. But now you don't have to," Tooth said, fluttering over to try and touch his arm.

Jack pulled back as though her hands would burn. "No, you don't get it. I take care of myself. That's what I do."

"Jack –"

"Leave it. Just accept that I can take care of myself and this teamwork thing will work out better for us all."

Jack flew toward one of the windows and let himself out before they could answer that. The remaining Guardians looked at each other, their expressions ranging from shocked to sad. No one needed to speak – they all shared the same thoughts. Just how much of a lone wolf did someone have to be to just go and set their own leg after they broke it? How many times had Jack done that himself to just be able to shrug it off so lightly now?

"I think he's missing the point of teamwork," Bunny said finally.

"Tell me that's not what you're worried about, Bunny!" Tooth said angrily.

"You know bloody well that I don't give a second care about that! I just . . . that kid . . . I don't even know what to say, this is just so wrong!" Bunny said, starting off angry but ending in a flustered tone.

Sandy waved to get their attention then created miniature figures of each of the Guardians over his head. He grouped the four sand versions of them together, and the sand version of Jack Frost far off to the side, his back to them. They watched as Sandy made Jack glance over his shoulder then quickly look away. Then look at them again and slowly turn. The sand version of Sandy waved to Jack. The sand version of North beckoned. Sand Bunny hunched his shoulders then relaxed them and beckoned as well. Sand Tooth held her arms open for a hug. Slowly the group of Sand Guardians and the lone Sand Jack began moving toward each other. Steadily on the part of the Sand Guardians. Hesitantly on Sand Jack's part, until he was right in front of them. Then somehow, and they weren't sure how because even though they were all watching, none of them saw who made the first move, but suddenly Jack was a part of their group, accepting a hug from Tooth, reaching out to give Bunny five and pat Sandy on the head, allowing North to sling an arm about his shoulders.

Slowly, the Guardians watching the sand show smiled.

"You're right."


	2. Freeze a Fever

Freeze a Fever

Jack didn't get sick often. He never caught colds, or the flu, or any other common winter illnesses. The only illness that could ever get him down were fevers. Not the dangerous kind like scarlet fever or anything. Just fevers. They made him drowsy, weak, and nauseous, but weren't really dangerous to him.

He'd learned long ago what the best way to beat a fever was. Forget the fools who said to starve a fever. The best way to get rid of one was to freeze it. And freezing was Jack's specialty.

Lying in a snow drift for a couple days seemed to work best, Jack had discovered. That way he didn't have to expend his own power and weaken himself even more. He could just lay back and relax, and let the snow that was already there do its thing.

Only problem was, snow was harder to find in the summer. Time used to be, whenever Jack got a fever in the spring or summer, he'd head down to Antarctica. It was safe there. Desolate. No one to bother him or try to take advantage of his weakened state. He'd thought the North Pole was probably relatively safe, but he hadn't liked to chance it. He knew that the yetis were just big teddy bears no matter how threatening they pretended to be, but he hadn't really known North back then.

But now he knew North might look very big and intimidating, but deeper inside, he was downright jolly, and deeper down he was very caring. North wouldn't mind Jack Frost napping in one of his snow banks to sleep off a fever. Since the North Pole was closer to Burgess than Antarctica, that's where Jack headed when he felt the onset of the fever.

It had hit him in full force by the time he arrived. He staggered a bit when he landed near North's workshop, then let his legs give out underneath him and flopped down into the snow. The blessedly cold snow. It was still falling up here, making a nice soft bed for a feverish little winter spirit. The large flakes drifting to the ground made Jack sleepy just watching them. Well, he was already sleepy to begin with, but they made him sleepier, just by seeing how peaceful they looked. He closed his eyes and slept.

* * *

North laughed in delight at his newest ice prototype: a windup flying fairy doll. Tooth's proclamation that Sophie was a fairy fan had inspired a whole new line of toys in North's mind. This first one had taken so very long to make. The wings had to be carved so painstakingly, and the mechanisms that made them work were so delicate, but the end result was worth it. It buzzed like a hummingbird, flitting around the room, up near the ceiling, toward the window, near the door-

- which burst open and smashed the fairy doll like a bug.

"Ahhhh! If I told you once, I told you a hundred times! Knock before you open –"

"Yakul Braugh! Grawdruf Braucka!" shouted the Yeti, heedless of the crushed toy. His words drove all concerns for the toy out of North's mind too, no matter how many hours he'd spent getting it right.

"What? Jack Frost is here? And he's injured?" North took off running all other cares abandoned. He couldn't seem to run fast enough as he went at full speed, not bothering with his hat or coat despite the freezing temperatures outside. He ran as fast as he could, outside to where the yeti said Frost had been found.

Only a stone throw away from his own doorstep he found two more yetis standing over a very pale, very still Jack Frost. They were dusting snow off the boy when North skidded to a stop in front of them, his heart thumping so fast that it felt fit to burst, and not just because of how fast he'd run. Jack . . . Jack did not look good.

His skin was even paler than usual. Dangerously pale. His lips were purplish, tinged with blue. Had he been anyone else, North would have taken him for being dead on sight, but Jack was a child of the winter. The cold was his element. What would be death to anyone else revitalized him, so surely he had to be okay . . . right? Surely . . .

North reached out to check for a pulse, then jumped as Jack's eyes flew open the moment his fingers touched his throat. Jack's staff, never far from his reach, spun and was suddenly pointed right at North's face and he braced himself for the inevitable blast of cold that never came.

"Oh. It's just you," Jack said, sounding relieved as he lowered his staff.

His relief almost seemed like a mockery of North's own. North took a deep gulp of air and moved his hand from Jack's throat to his shoulder. He gave a weak laugh, then reached his hand up a little higher to ruffle Jack's hair. "You gave an old man a fierce scare, boy! What are you doing sleeping outside in snowdrifts?"

Jack looked rueful. "Sorry, I guess I should have asked for your permission first, but I was sick with a fever. So I came here to sleep it off."

North blinked. "You what?"

"It was either here or Antarctica, and here was closer. I figured you wouldn't mind. Er, sorry if I presumed too much."

"You were sick? And you came here, but did not come to me for help?" North asked.

"Well, yeah. No need to bug you about it."

"Jack . . . I would have helped you," said North.

"Well, not to be mean, but there's really nothing you could have done. The fastest way to get rid of a fever is by sleeping it off in the snow. You couldn't have done anything, North."

"I could have been here for you," insisted North.

Jack looked at him uncertainly. "But . . . that would have just wasted your time. Besides, I can take care of myself."

"But you shouldn't have to. Not when you're sick."

Jack shrugged. "But I do. I always have. And I'm feeling much better now, so I'm clearly doing something right."

"That does not mean you have to do everything on your own, Jack."

Jack looked confused and slightly frustrated. "It's what I'm used to."

"But it doesn't have to be that way anymore. You have friends now. People you can turn to for help when you need it," said North.

"But I don't need help. I take care of myself," Jack said again.

"I don't think you understand. We want to help you, Jack. Please . . . next time you are feeling ill, come to me. I want to help you."

Jack studied him for several seconds, then shrugged. "I'll think about it."

It was as good as he was going to get, North knew as he stood up, and started to reach a hand down to help Jack up too, but the boy wouldn't even let him do that much for him. He floated to his feet with his own powers and shook some leftover snowflakes out of his hair, reminding North of a puppy, so young (or at least young looking) and full of life. If only he was that trusting too.

But North had to remind himself that even though Jack looked like a youth, he was much, much older. He'd been alone so long, he'd forgotten what it was like to be able to trust others . . . no . . . he'd never even known, having woken up with no memories of his former life. And no one had even tried to show him what it was like to have friends and be able to trust others. Not even the Guardians. Not until now.

North refused to believe that it was too late. However long it took, he would make Jack Frost see that he wasn't alone anymore, and that there were people he could turn to for help now.

* * *

Each chapter's going to feature a different Guardian trying to help Jack see that he's got people who want to take care of him when he's hurt now. Next up: Tooth!


	3. Snapped

Snapped

North and Bunny immediately leapt to defend Sandy when Pitch formed another arrow of nightmare sand and aimed it at the Guardian of Dreams. Then a malicious smile crossed his face and he turned all the way around to where Jack was charging him from behind, and loosed the arrow before any of them realized what was happening.

Jack was insanely fast and insanely coordinated, and managed to block the arrow with his staff, but they all heard the sound of wood splintering. Pitch followed up the arrow with a blast of nightmare sand that swallowed up Jack and the stream of frostlight he shot back in defense. Another crack resounded through the air, followed up by Jack's cry of pain. Then the Guardians watched in horror as their youngest fell from the sky, his staff broken in two.

"Tooth, get Jack!" Bunny shouted and threw one of his boomerangs at Pitch, putting all his rage behind it.

North wavered between flying down to catch Jack himself or keeping up the attack on Pitch, but went with the former when he saw Tooth diving at full speed toward the boy. Sandy lashed out with his whips too, but kept half an eye on his plummeting comrades.

Jack had recovered quickly from the pain of his staff breaking. He'd even managed to hang on to half of it. As he fell, he tried to catch the other piece that fell alongside him. His efforts were unusually clumsy, because the leftover pain made him weak, but he was stubborn. Finally, he managed to snag the other half of his staff out of the air. Then he pressed the two halves together and called on the power deep inside of him.

Tooth stared in shock as Jack's staff began glowing, but didn't pause in her descent. She didn't know if what Jack was doing would work or not. She couldn't risk it. She tried to fly down toward him even faster, but then Jack's staff had fused back together and he was flying again, rocketing past her, straight toward Pitch.

He attacked Pitch directly from below, catching the Nightmare King off guard and frosting him with a good thick coat of ice.

"Dude! If breaking the staff didn't work the first time, what made you think it would the second?" asked Jack, as he charged in and smacked Pitch across the face with his staff, shattering the old ice, but blasting more at him in the exact same attack.

"Curse you, Frost! Don't you know when to just die?!"

Up inside Pitch's guard now, Jack's frostlight attacks were devastating. Each blast exploded like blue and white fireworks, tearing away Pitch's connections to his nightmare sand and the darkness he manipulated.

"Even worse! I don't know when to stay dead!" Jack shouted back at Pitch, then fired off his biggest blast yet. It blasted Pitch out of sight and lit up the entire sky like an aurora! From it, soft bluish white snowflakes began drifting to the ground.

"Pretty," Tooth whispered, her breath momentarily taken away by their beautiful victory. Then concern returned and she flew to hover beside him.

"That was fun. We should do it again next week," said Jack, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. He held his staff horizontally behind his back, and sort of leaned against it, very casually, like they'd just finished playing baseball, or some other normal past time.

"Pitch has broken your staff before?" Tooth asked him, resting a hand on Jack's arm.

Jack jumped slightly at the contact then gave her a carefree smile, trying to cover it up. "Once. He should have known it wouldn't work any better the second time."

"I think he was counting on you going splat before you could fix it," said Bunny as he hopped up on the nearest rooftop.

"When did he break it?" asked Tooth, refusing to be deterred.

Jack shrugged. "Awhile back."

Bunny too seemed to recognize that Jack was trying to dodge the question. "How far back is awhile back?"

"I dunno. Awhile?"

"Jack," Tooth said disapprovingly.

Jack finally sighed and floated a few feet away from them before caving in. "It was during that fiasco after I ruined Easter, okay?"

North had pulled up beside Bunny, parking his sleigh on the roof.

"What happened?" the Russian asked grimly.

"Nothing happened. We fought. We insulted each other. The usual things that happen when Pitch and I meet. Then he kind of snapped my staff in half, so I fixed it and went and sabotaged all his plans," said Jack.

"Why do I get the feeling you're glossing over more than a few details, mate?" Bunny asked.

"Because kangaroos are instinctively paranoid?" Jack suggested innocently.

"Jack?" asked Tooth and waited until Jack looked at her.

It took a few seconds, but he finally did.

"Your staff is the source of your powers, right? Or at least it's directly connected to your powers. So . . . does it hurt you when it breaks?" she asked.

Jack shrugged. "Kinda. But it's not like I can't handle it. I can take care of myself."

Those word again. North had said Jack used them when he found the boy sleeping off a fever in the snow too. They were always said with a touch of defiance, like he was daring the other Guardians to challenge his self sufficiency.

Tooth rose to the challenge this time. "No one can take care of themselves all the time, Jack."

"Except me," the boy insisted.

"No, Jack. Not even you. Please, let us help you when you need it."

Jack's eyes grew stormy. "I take care of myself. I took care of myself for three hundred years."

"But you have friends who can help you now. You're not alone anymore, Jack."

"I'm not saying it's not nice to have you guys around. Life's been a lot brighter since I made friends with you guys. I'm not saying I don't want you around. I'm just saying . . ."

"Saying what?" Tooth asked hopefully.

"That I don't need anyone to take care of me. I've always taken care of myself."

"And when you finally meet a problem too big to take care of on your own?" Tooth pressed.

Jack shrugged. "It hasn't happened yet."

"Jack –"

"Leave it!" The wind suddenly turned cold in response to Jack's sudden anger, and the large snowflakes that had been drifting slowly to the ground turned smaller, sharper, and began moving faster.

"Jack, I just want to make sure you know that we're here for you. And that you don't have to do everyone by yourself now. You can let us take care of you," said Tooth. She tried to fly closer to him, but the winds around Jack were strong and unpredictable, and she realized that trying to fly through them would lead to her being tossed about like one of Jack's snowflakes, and probably losing some feathers.

"I take care of myself!" Jack said again, very stubbornly.

"Take it easy, Frostbite. No one's implying you're not capable –" Bunny tried to interject.

"She is!" Jack cut him off.

"Jack. Enough," said North, speaking in a stern voice, like a father might use with his wayward son.

And to Tooth's great surprise, it worked. The winds calmed down and the snowflakes started drifting slowly again. They weren't quite as large as before, but they looked much softer than they had moments ago. Jack looked a little rueful, scratching the back of his head and hiding one foot behind the other as he floated there, bobbing up and down.

"Now that this is over for the night, let us go celebrate our victory! Everyone in the sleigh!" declared North. Not even Bunny argued with North now. Perhaps he sensed how close to a big blowup they had perhaps come and how narrowly they'd missed it.

Tooth knew that she should have left it, just as Jack had been adamant about, but as she sat down behind the frost child, she realized that she couldn't. She needed to make sure Jack knew.

So before she could think about it further, or anyone could stop her, she threw her arms around Jack and pulled him into a tight hug.

Jack yelped, perhaps thinking he was being attacked, but settled down when he realized it was just Tooth.

"I would have caught you. I promise, I would have caught you," she whispered into his ear as she hugged him tight. Because she needed Jack to know that even though he could take care of himself, there were people who would take care of him if he ever wasn't able to.

* * *

So there's Tooth's chapter. Next up: Sandy!

Also, I wrote and posted a oneshot yesterday called "Baby Birds" in which Jack finds an abandoned baby penguin and brings it back to the North Pole. Please go check it out!


	4. Enter Sandman

Enter Sandman

Sandy took pride in his work. Doubly so when it involved other immortals. Many of them didn't need as much sleep as humans did, but when they did sleep, Sandy made it an effort to take special care with their dreams.

For North there were merry feasts, or here and there an adventure with a hoard of treasure at the end, a carryover from his bandit days. For Tooth, a warm night out in the field, with enough time to stop by each child's bed and tuck the blankets around them, or pat them on the head after securing their precious memories. Most of the time, at least. Every now and then, her role was reversed, and it was her being tucked in, by the parents she'd lost so long ago, on nights where she was feeling particularly nostalgic. For Bunny there were races, clear skies, an early spring after winning a boxing match against the Groundhog.

Jack though . . . Jack was harder. Until recently at least. Before his dreams had barely been discernable from his everyday life, of flying over seas, dodging waves, playing games with dolphins, or starting snowball fights with a bunch of kids. They'd been good dreams, but nothing special, and that had bothered Sandy, who took special care with the dreams of immortals. Nowadays Sandy was better prepared to give Jack sweet dreams. He'd give him an afternoon playing in the woods with his sister, or an evening in front of the hearth with his whole family, watching chestnuts pop. Things that he had forgotten until recently. Memories that he wanted to hold onto with all his heart. Even though he hadn't exactly held onto them. He hadn't even gotten most of them back yet, but by using his baby teeth, he'd opened up the floodgate, and now they were there, just out of his own reach, but not out of reach of Sandy's dream sand.

It pleased Sandy more than he could let anyone know, that he was able to help Jack in this way. He'd begun looking forward to the nights when Jack Frost fell asleep, keeping track of the young spirit's sleeping habits until he could tell right when the frost child would be starting to get drowsy.

But one night his calculations were off. All his instincts were telling him that now was when Jack should be starting to fall asleep, but the sixth sense that Sandy possessed that let him know when to send out his streams of dream sand, and who to send them to, wasn't telling him anything where Jack was concerned. Not at first. It confused Sandy, but he didn't rush to check on it immediately and make sure his friend was alright. He doubted Jack would appreciate it.

As much as he didn't like it sometimes, Jack could take care of himself. He'd been taking care of himself for three centuries. Sandy had to try hard to see things from the immortal child's perspective, and he couldn't deny Jack's feelings were justified. The boy had always taken care of himself. He hadn't had a choice. If he didn't take care of himself, no one else would. Even though he had people who cared about him now, he couldn't just squash down three hundred years of habit. No one could.

Change would be slow to come, Sandy knew, but he could be patient. Time was what had caused this problem. Time and negligence. Time and persistence were the only things that could fix it now.

Finally, he felt Jack drift off, and a smile lit the silent Guardian's face. He cupped his hands together and raised them toward the moon, then sent out a stream specifically for his friend. He knew Jack would love his dream for tonight.

But suddenly that sixth sense flickered off. Sandy lowered his hands and frowned. Jack had woken up. But why? Had something startled him? Sandy knew North had not yet managed to lure Jack to the pole, but not for lack of trying. North was determined to take the boy in and be the father figure he felt that Jack was clearly missing. He'd been devastated last year when Jack had gotten a fever and gone to the North Pole to sleep it off in a snowdrift right outside North's workshop, never even thinking to ask North for help. Much eggnog had been consumed in the wake of that incident. Sandy shuddered to even think of it.

But as things stood now, Jack was still living on his own. He slept in trees or on roofs when there was no snow to burrow into. Perhaps something had woken him up right after he nodded off? That was the most likely explanation, Sandy knew.

Sure enough, minutes later, he felt Jack drift off to sleep again, and he sent the dream sand back out. He smiled as he felt it reach its destination, and began to rise back up onto his cloud, satisfied that this area was well taken care of. It was time to move on.

But five minutes later the frown was back on his face as he felt Jack wake up again. Sandy couldn't help but wonder what was going on with the winter spirit. Then it happened again, before the half hour was even up. Jack drifted off again, but awoke within minutes of falling asleep.

Sandy decided enough was enough. Whatever was disturbing Jack and keeping him from getting a good night sleep needed to be dealt with. Jack might not appreciate his help, but he got it anyway. With a mere thought, he transformed his sand cloud into a hang glider and set a course for Jack's current location. He would find out what was going on with his friend and he would fix it.

* * *

Jack groaned as the alarm clock blared, jolting him out of sleep yet again, and sat up straighter. "How long do I gotta do this again?" he muttered to himself as he checked the time.

It had started with a snowball fight. Funny how much trouble started with snowball fights. And for once it hadn't been Jack's fault. The trouble that followed, anyway. The snowball fight had definitely been his fault. But Sophie had come running to join in and slipped into the road (on a patch of ice that Jack had nothing to do with), right into the path of a truck. Jack had gotten her out of the way just in time. He himself had not been so lucky.

But seriously, how had that truck been able to hit him? It's not like the mass of metal, or the idiot driving it and speeding despite the snow believed in Jack. For once Jack wouldn't have minded being walked through. Or driven through, as the case actually was, but whatever.

He'd ended up crushed against the front of the truck, then smashed against a wall. It hurt like crazy. Worse than most of his mishaps, in fact. Normally, Jack would have slunk home to his pond to try sleeping it off, but Jamie and all the kids had been there, and they had insisted on trying to take care of him, and shining a flashlight in his eyes, and proceeding to diagnose him with a concussion. Jack didn't even know what a concussion was, had a sinking suspicion that he'd probably had one before, but Jamie and his friends had all insisted it was a big deal. Caleb and Claude had pulled a big medical book down off their mom's bookshelf and declared that Jack was not allowed to sleep for twelve hours.

Normally that would have been no problem. Jack didn't need much sleep anyway. But it had been awhile since he'd gotten any. In fact, he'd been planning on sleeping that night, but now the kids said that was out of the question. At least until 2:00 AM.

Which was still an hour away, according to the alarm clock he'd borrowed from Jamie.

"Ah, the heck with it. One hour isn't going to make any difference," Jack decided and turned the alarm off. He'd already kept himself up for hours after the kids had gone to bed. He'd only needed the alarm clock to wake him up for about the last hour. If he kept this routine of nodding off then being jolted awake by the alarm clock up for another hour, Sandman was going to notice and come to see if something was wrong.

A golden glow caught Jack's eye and he groaned. Think of the devil . . .

"Hey, Sandy," he greeted his friend, slapping a smile on his face.

Sandy dropped down off of a hang glider of dream sand and made a questioning motion toward Jack.

"Nothing's wrong," Jack was quick to assure him.

Sandy crossed his arms.

"What? Nothing is wrong."

Sandy conjured up the image of a face and made its nose grow like Pinocchio's.

"Are you calling me a liar?"

Sandy nodded.

"Yeah, well you're annoying."

Sandy glared then pointed at the alarm clock and conjured up a question mark.

Jack considered lying some more, but decided against it. Sandy was a friend. He could tell him the truth. "It's really not a big deal, Sandy. I just took a header into a truck this morning, then got diagnosed with a concussion by a bunch of tweens. They said to stay awake for the next four hours, so I did. But the twelve hours are more or less up, so I was right about to go to sleep before you showed up. You can check for yourself. I turned off the alarm and everything."

Sandy picked up the alarm clock and checked it. Then he set it back down and gave Jack a sad frown.

"Don't look at me like that, Sandy. I didn't even do anything wrong," said Jack, feeling guilty somehow but not sure why.

Several images appeared in Sandy's dreamsand. Jack recognized an image of himself, and one of Sandy. He watched in bemusement as the sand version of him fell down then picked himself up and ran to the sand version of Sandy, who hugged him and patted him on the head.

"Uh, no. I'm not going to come crying to you or any of the other Guardians every time I take a small spill."

Another image, this one of a milk jug spilling sand milk. Then a dreamsand monster truck fell from above and squashed it.

"Okay, a truck is a little more serious than a small spill, I'll give you that, but I'm fine, Sandy. I'm always fine."

Sandy shook his head.

"Uh, yeah, I am. Come on, Sandman, don't make me say it. I can take care of myself."

Sandy created more images: an Easter egg with rabbit ears, a candy cane with a Santa hat, a tooth with fairy wings, a sand castle, and a snowflake. He brought them all together and blended them so that they formed a single image. A picture frame. And inside the picture, Jack recognized all of the Guardians, himself included. It was a picture that had never been taken. He knew this for a fact. Bunny had never slung his arms around Jack's shoulders like the sand version of him was doing in the picture.

"I know I'm part of a team now, but that doesn't change . . . that doesn't change me, Sandy. If I have a problem, I deal with it. I don't go searching for someone to try to fix it for me."

Sandy waved wildly to get his attention then pointed at the picture.

"Or with me," Jack amended.

He was starting to feel like a broken record. How many times had he had this conversation with the other Guardians now?

"Sandy . . . look. I like being part of the team. I like the company. I like the friendship. I like knowing that other people are there for me now. I really do. And yes, I do know that you all want to be there for me. I just . . . I've been doing things my own way for so long that I'm still not used to you guys being around. Someday I will be. And I like to think that someday, if I actually need help, you'll be there for me. But seriously, and please believe me when I say this: There has not yet been a time when I've actually needed your guys' help."

The look Sandy gave him was so sad, but it was like a floodgate had busted. Now that he'd started, Jack couldn't seem to stop.

"There were times when I did need someone's help. Or at least I thought I did. When I was younger, and ignorant, and didn't know who or what I was, or why I was created. I would have given anything, anything at all for someone, anyone to help me. I thought that I needed help then, but I was wrong. I survived on my own. Every time I was lonely, or thought I needed help, I got through it on my own. For three hundred years. And over time I learned that I really didn't need anyone else. That there were very few things I couldn't get through on my own. And by very few things, I mean nothing that I've found yet. Broken bones, fevers, cuts, scrapes, stab wounds, burns, bumps to the head, I can handle them all. I have handled them all. Many times. So I don't think it's fair for you guys to expect me to come crying to you over every little thing."

Sandy floated up to put a hand on his arm. Somehow, impossibly, his expression had gotten even sadder. He formed more images. A wishbone breaking and a clock spinning backwards.

Jack blinked at the images and considered them. He knew what Sandy was saying: that he wished he could turn back the clock. He was wishing he could be there for Jack those times when Jack had thought he needed help. It was impossible, Jack knew, but if it was possible, would he really wish that could happen too? That Sandy and the others could have been there for him? It would have been nice, he wouldn't deny that. But would it have been the right thing for him?

"You don't need to wish that. Being on my own, dealing with everything alone, and taking care of myself made me strong. That's why I'm useful to you guys now. So it all works out in the end," said Jack when he'd finally thought it over.

Sandy shook his head. He looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't know what or how. Instead he hugged Jack. A big, fully bodied hug. His arms were tiny, but Jack was rail thin, so Sandy managed to reach most of the way around his back. Jack stiffened in shock, then hesitantly returned the hug.

"It's okay, Sandy. You don't have to be sad. Please don't be upset. Please?"

Sandy didn't answer. Just held onto him, rubbing his back, trying to tell him with the embrace what words could not say in any way that Jack could accept. He held on for a long time. Even after he felt Jack put his head on his shoulder and fall asleep. But finally he let go, and laid the immortal child back down in his snowdrift.

He had work to do elsewhere, so he knew he needed to go. Before he left, he sprinkled dreamsand over Jack's head to ensure the boy's dreams were sweet.

But he wasn't under any illusions that he had actually taken care of Jack here. No, Jack had taken care of himself. Like always. But he had opened up to Sandy, and Sandy thought that was a good start.

* * *

Next up: Bunny!


	5. Summer in San Francisco

Summer in San Francisco

Jack had seen fearlings before, but hadn't ever actually fought any. Unless Pitch's nightmares counted as fearlings. He wasn't sure about the classifications. It didn't make much difference to him either. While before he had ignored Pitch's lesser minions, and they'd ignored him, times had clearly changed. The fearlings had clearly sought him out and attacked him with no provocation. Okay, a little provocation . . . Well, okay, to be completely honest, Jack had started it. But he planned to finish it too, so what did it matter?

It was summer in San Francisco, but that made little difference to Jack. The ocean, its currents, and his friend the wind kept the area phenomenally cold, making it one of the few places in the US that Jack could stand to be during the summer months.

Jack had come here specifically because he knew there was fear lingering in the fair city. A small earthquake had rocked the Bay Area that morning, and aftershocks had continued throughout the afternoon and evening. No one had been hurt and damage had been restricted to a few busted pipes and such, but Jack knew that in times like these, people couldn't help but worry. He'd gone to San Francisco to bring a little more fun into the peoples' lives.

He'd frozen a few pipes that were busted, to give the people a hand and stop them from flooding the buildings and conjured up a bunch of ice statues in random places, to give people a mystery, since no one knew how they got there. He did caricaturized versions of well known people in the city, like the mayor and the local weatherman. Igloos sprung up at playgrounds. Swarms of ice statue penguins appeared in the subway stations. People laughed to see them even if they were kinda in the way.

By the time darkness started falling the people of San Francisco were smiling a little faster, their steps a little lighter, the fear retreating from their hearts. Children laughed over dinner, telling their parents about the ice statues they'd seen, and taken pictures of with their cell phones. The phenomenon had gone viral and was now rivaling that morning's earthquake for the biggest news story of the day in the city out of San Francisco.

When children began making their way to bed, Jack started frosting windows. It was a little early but he figured no one would mind. He wanted to take his time tonight, make the patterns more beautiful than usual. Little things held great power sometimes, Jack firmly believed. Small, everyday things could keep the darkness and fear at bay. A little bit of beauty, a little bit of love or care, or something a little out of the ordinary could bring a smile to someone's face, and that was where fear and sorrow lost its power.

Jack paused a few times to wave to passing mini-fairies as they flitted about collecting teeth, and once took a break to reach out and touch one of Sandy's dreamsand streams, teasing out a golden seahorse that swam in circles around him several times then kissed him on his nose before going on its way. He was glad for the presence of the other two Guardians in the scared city. Where there was ground for fear to take root there was a greater chance of running into Pitch. Jack wasn't scared of him, but neither was he so arrogant and reckless that he thought he could protect every child in the world on his own and be everywhere at once. If Pitch decided to make a move, the more Guardians that were around, the better their chances of catching on to him as fast as possible, and stopping him.

It was a little after midnight when Pitch struck. The mists that blew in off the ocean darkened and fearlings began crawling out of it. Jack was on them in an instant, despite their number.

It was one of the rare nights that the city was quiet, even after dark. Usually the city had a pretty lively night life, but the earthquake that morning had dampened it. Which was probably for the best. It meant Jack didn't have to worry about any human bystanders getting caught in the crossfire. Now he wouldn't have to hold back.

He dashed over the ranks of fearlings as they formed, raining down ice liberally on them and freezing them before they could fully materialize. Cold and dark did indeed go well together, but the dark clearly got the raw end of the deal now. The dark particles were left suspended and trapped in the ice, immobile statues. When some of fully formed fearlings he hadn't iced yet attacked him, Jack summoned a circle of icy stalagmites out of the ground, every way around him, by slamming the end of his staff against the ground, much like he'd done to disrupt the Guardians's first attempt at inducting him into their ranks. He wondered what his friends would think if they knew how devastating that little action could have been if he'd put even a touch of malignancy into it at the time, like he was doing now. The icy spikes impaled the fearlings and spread more ice. Then Jack began darting through them at top speed, striking them with his staff, sending out streams of ice in bursts and spurts, keeping it unpredictable. It didn't take long for all that ice to start building up. Within minutes, the streets looked like a frozen wasteland of dark icy statues.

Jack laughed as he kept his attacks up. This was fun! He'd never done anything quite like this before! Before becoming a Guardian, he hadn't done too much fighting, and certainly never on this scale of level. It didn't take too much ice to freeze the fearlings. When the sun eventually came up at dawn, the light would melt the fearlings away, and with nothing to hold the ice up, it would crumble into dust, so he didn't have to worry too much about causing destruction. Which was good, because at a glance, he was creating a winter cursedland rather than a winter wonderland. It looked much worse than it actually was. But he was in his element quite literally, so Jack had no worries. He continued fighting on through the increasingly cold night.

* * *

Bunny made tracks for San Francisco as soon as he got Sandy's distress call. He was not expecting what he found. Sure he knew the city was cold but what he found when he got there was beyond ridiculous.

There were thousands of fearlings, all of them frozen solid. Thin sheets of ice encased the surface of some of them. Others just had a coat of frosting over them, the fernlike swirls making them look particularly creepy. Bunny gaped at the site, unable to believe his eyes. He'd known Jack was powerful but this . . . this went overboard. How one person, even a Guardian, could take out this many fearlings was just so far beyond him that all he could do was stare.

Finally a sneeze roused him out of his mesmerization. San Francisco was cold at the best of times, but now it felt more like Antarctica.

"Bunny!" Tooth swooped down like an overgrown, very colorful bat.

"Tooth," Bunny greeted her.

"Have you seen Jack?"

"Nope. I just got here," said Bunny

"Me too. I was expecting a fight. Instead I find this."

"There's nothing to say there won't still be a fight," realized Bunny. They had no idea how many fearlings there were. Bunny couldn't see how there could possibly be more than what he saw frozen around him now, but experience taught him to expect the unexpected.

Then they saw Sandy send up a golden flare to draw them to their position. It was a softer flare, a gentle sort of firework, meant to signal to his missing comrades to come to where he was, but to let them know that it wasn't urgent. If he'd been fighting, the sparks would have exploded faster and it would have popped more.

Even so, Tooth and Bunny wasted no time hurrying to Sandy's position. When they got there, they found that North was already there with Sandy. And with Jack. Jack was leaning heavily on his staff, a sleepy look on his face, but he was talking animatedly to North and Sandy about what he'd just done. Then he noticed Tooth and Bunny.

"Guys! You missed the party!"

"Party? You call this a party?!" Bunny demanded.

"You don't?" asked Jack.

"It's too bloody cold to be a party! Doesn't this city know it's nearly summer?"

"The coldest winters are summers in San Francisco. Or something like that. Some poet said that once," Jack said with an easy grin. Then he stumbled exhaustedly and nearly fell. Would have fell if North hadn't grabbed him.

Anger surged through Bunny. "What in all bloody get out did you think you were doing here, Snowflake?"

"Making a mess, of course."

"I can bloody well see that!"

"Bunny," Tooth tried to calm him, but Bunny stalked forward, her words falling on deaf ears.

"Hey, I was just kidding about that! It's not as bad as it looks, I swear. As soon as the sun hits those fearlings they'll dissolve, right? And the ice will break into dust," said Jack. The boy looked alarmed and he backed away from Bunny.

"They've only got a light dusting on them. The real damage to the fearlings was the temperature, not the actual ice. Bunny . . ."

"I don't give a yolk about the city! They've got road salts and all that for ice! What I care about is that you took on this many fearlings by yourself! And don't tell me you had help from North or Sandy, I know their handywork and I know yours and this is all yours!" shouted Bunny.

"I wasn't going to deny it. But I don't see what the problem is," said Jack. He warily took one more step back then stopped, and decided to hold his ground.

"The problem is you could have made a mess of yourself! And you're not so easy to fix! Have you ever fought fearlings before?" demanded Bunny.

"No, but they weren't so hard."

"But you had no idea what they were capable of, no idea what they could do!"

"Not true! I had some idea of what they could do!"

"Oh, yes, wonderful. That makes it perfectly alright for you to dive headfirst into masses of them and try to take on an entire army of them by yourself!" Bunny screamed sarcastically.

"No, what makes it alright for me to do that by myself is that I know I can do it by myself!" Jack shouted back.

"And if you suddenly realized midfight that you couldn't?" Bunny wanted to know.

"That doesn't matter because that didn't happen!" Jack said coldly.

"It could have happened!"

"But it didn't!"

"But if you keep this up, someday it will. What are you going to do then?" demanded Bunny.

"The same thing I've done every time I thought I couldn't do something by myself. I'd find a way," Jack said angrily.

"And if there is no way?"

"There's always a way."

"Not always," Bunny insisted.

"How many times are you guys going to make me say it? I can take care of myself!" Jack shouted.

"But you don't have to anymore!" Bunny yelled right back.

North stuck his two cents in, finally. "Bunny is right, Jack. We are a team now. When job is too big, you turn to us. We help you."

Jack looked at them in disbelief. "What is wrong with you guys? Do you not see what I did? On my own! How many fearlings I took out? Why are you acting like I did something wrong?"

"That's not how we're acting, mate," Bunny said quickly.

"Yes you are," Jack argued.

"No we're not."

"The heck you're not! You came and started yelling at me for no good reason!"

"He was worried for you Jack," Tooth put in.

"Then he should stop! All of you should stop! I don't need you to worry about me! And I especially don't need you yelling at me for some imagined, hypothetical, nonexistent weakness! I can fight on my own and as you can see by all the iced fearlings here, I do it pretty darn well! What I can't do is this! This . . . argument. Over and over with you four!"

"We can stop this argument just as soon as you realize something's got to change," Bunny said angrily.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Why what?"

"Why should I change? I'm not doing anything wrong!" shouted Jack.

"You're worrying us sick!" argued Bunny.

"Then the people who need to change are you!" Jack sniped back.

"Easy, easy, my friends! There must be a compromise!" North put in.

"I don't see how," said Jack. He felt childish saying that, but funnily enough, didn't feel childish at all being defiant to Bunny's demands. If there was some way to compromise, he might have considered it, but the way he saw this, it was either all or nothing. Either the other Guardians recognized that he could take care of himself, or they didn't. Or alternately, either he fell in line and went against three centuries worth of instincts and conditioning, or he didn't. He didn't see what middle ground there could be, and judging by North's pause, neither did the older Guardian. Or any of the Guardians for that matter.

Deep down he knew Bunny and all the Guardians were concerned about him, and while it was a warming feeling, it was also extremely frustrating. It felt like they were trying too hard to make up for the years they knew he'd spent alone, while completely ignoring how those centuries spent on his own had made him independent and strong.

Of course, that might also be the root of the problem too, he thought. He was a loner. The other Guardians were a team. You couldn't just toss a loner in with a team and expect them all to gel.

"This . . . this just isn't working." Jack hated to admit it, but it was true.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Bunny said quickly, panic overtaking his expression. Sandy gestured frantically. North looked at him in alarm.

"What are you saying, Jack?" Tooth asked, a tremor in her voice.

"This teamwork thing. Or lack of teamwork. Or I don't know." Jack shook his head.

"It's not not working," Bunny said, using a double negative and causing more confusion.

"You are Guardian," North agreed.

"I'm not saying that I'm quitting. I'm just saying what we're trying to do now isn't working. I'm not going to suddenly start being Mr. Team Spirit. I'm not going to suddenly start waiting for backup that I don't need, or asking for help when I can do something on my own. And I doubt you guys are going to suddenly get off my case for doing things the way I always have," said Jack.

"Then . . . where does that leave us?" Bunny asked.

Jack shook his head helplessly. "I don't know. I just . . . don't know."


End file.
